Be Happy at JPS

To the editor: Way to go! “Nurses Unite” (May 6, 2009) has really helped the nursing shortage … to continue. What could be worse than working for someone who doesn’t care, with someone who feels powerless?

Last year I moved here from Maryland after working for more than 40 years as a patient-care coordinator at the nation’s top-ranked hospital. Nurses complain everywhere. What should a hospital do when nurses complain? Listen!

What are the nurses at the hospitals in the article doing to encourage stewardship of their units? Patient care is a team effort. Nurse, doctor, aide, housekeeper – all these people are part of a team. Are they all meeting together to put patients first? Are they preparing suggestions to present to hospital administration? Are the executives in these hospitals sharing their concerns with all their staff?

Are outside groups going to meet the needs of all your co-workers? No job in a hospital is more valuable than any other. The problem won’t be solved if the nurses join in a group. Internal organizational problems affect everyone.

In nursing, problems travel uphill. It is your duty to tell your supervisor that you feel unsafe. It is his or her duty to find a resolution or to send it up the administrative chain until you’re feeling safe. Use your resources.

If you really don’t like your boss or your job, quit. Burnout happens – deal with it, and go forward into something that makes you happy. Lots of opportunities await nurses. Be happy, and your patients will love you for it.

Joan Hershey

Euless

Books or Begonias

To the editor: I have been a resident of Fort Worth for some 60-odd years. Since I was able to read, I have proudly and regularly used my library card. Fort Worth has a library system that has been a source of information and entertainment to untold numbers. Learning of the decision to budget cut library hours, I was both dismayed and disappointed (“Best of 2008,” Sept. 24, 2008). My branch library in east Fort Worth on Bridge Street serves as an important resource for those without computers or internet access. Imagine my surprise when recently a significant landscaping project beautified the grounds there. So the choice is evidently books or begonias. When the blooms have faded, the books, movies, magazines, and computers will still be available some of the time. Unfortunately, not on Fridays or Sundays.

Kay Thompson Fields

Fort Worth

Zoo-Shine

To the editor: Jeff Prince’s Metropolis story “Sunshine for the Zoo,” (May 20, 2009) ought to ignite an interest in city leaders and the public in getting a concerted dialogue going with the hierarchy at the zoo. They may have a “vested interest” in the zoo’s success, but the taxpayers shouldn’t be flimflammed and denied information or an opportunity to air their grievances and concerns.

The Fort Worth Zoo is a showcase, but it shouldn’t be a bully, such as in taking over soccer fields and parkland in order to generate more revenue.

The zoo association board’s main characters, Ramona and Lee Bass, could orchestrate an amicable solution regarding the zoo’s impact on neighborhoods. Don’t eliminate a children’s playground so the zoo can make money.

Since 1994, Fort Worth Weekly has provided a vibrant alternative to North Texas’ often-timid mainstream media outlets by offering incisive, irreverent reportage that keeps readers well informed and the powers-that-be worried.